School renovation project may be slated for Schenectady voters

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

The Howe Elementary School on Baker Avenue, seen here on Tuesday, is under going major renovations.

Schenectady voters may be asked in May to approve a $50 million project for renovation work at some of the city’s 11 elementary schools as the second of four major construction projects at city schools.

Superintendent Larry Spring told the Schenectady school board last week that he planned to have the details of the project worked out in the coming months and ready to go to voters with a bond referendum at the same time as the annual May budget vote.

The renovations would include upgrades to classrooms – similar to those made at Oneida and Mont Pleasant middle schools under a current capital project expected to be mostly finished by the end of next summer – as well as updates to electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling and other structural systems.

“While it’s the most visible thing getting done in classrooms, that’s not the bulk of the work at Mont Pleasant and Oneida,” Spring said referring to two district middle schools that welcomed students this month after major renovations. “The bulk of the work is behind the walls.”

The project would have “minimal to no impact to taxpayers,” since the district would only do work that is reimbursable through state aid – at a reimbursement rate of nearly 100 percent – Spring said at the board meeting. Spring said he would look for ways to pay for any local share of the project through something other than an increase to the district tax levy.

Spring said the project was still in the planning process – both financial and construction – but he doesn’t expect every elementary school to be touched during the work. Pleasant Valley Elementary School, for example, likely has work needed on its dated internal systems, while Paige Elementary School is newer and in less need of work.

As the project develops, the school board will also have to mull the future of Keane Elementary School, on which the district maintains a long-term lease. While that lease does not expire for a few more years, Spring said, officials will need to begin considering whether or not to renew that lease. If the district wanted to move out of that lease, school officials would have to add space to its current schools, buy a building or build a new one. But Spring said finding a long-term solution to the Keane question was not an essential part of moving forward with the elementary school.

The $50 million project would be followed by two more large projects, both slightly larger than the $50 million price tag, Spring said. The third project in line would focus on Schenectady High School and Steinmetz Career and Leadership Academy; the fourth project would circle back to the district’s three middle schools. Once those projects were complete, the district could move into a regular cycle of smaller projects.

“We are getting ourselves into a cycle where we are doing more frequent smaller projects instead of much larger projects,” Spring told the school board.

Reach Gazette reporter Zachary Matson at 395-3120, [email protected] or @zacharydmatson on Twitter.